Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of a felony crime and was originally scheduled to be sentenced next week.
The judge handling a money laundering lawsuit against Donald Trump has granted a request to delay the former US president’s sentencing until at least September.
The decision on Tuesday follows a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that granted the president broad criminal immunity for his official acts.
Trump’s legal team cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a letter to Judge Juan Merzan, asking him to postpone the sentencing, which was originally scheduled for July 11.
Lawyers representing Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told Merchant they needed time to build their argument that Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents to conceal hush money paid to adult actresses should be overturned by the Supreme Court.
Before Merchant’s decision, prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Trump’s claims were “baseless” but agreed to postpone sentencing.
Merchant said sentencing would be delayed until at least September 18, less than two months before the November 8 election.
Prosecutors alleged that Trump falsified records showing that his former attorney Michael Cohen had paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for keeping her quiet about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
They directly tied the payments to a broader scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election.
In a letter to Merchant, Trump’s attorneys argued that prosecutors presented evidence at trial related to Trump’s official activities, including his social media posts and conversations he had while at the White House.
The lawyers said the evidence should be protected under presidential immunity, following a Supreme Court ruling Monday.
The majority of the six justices on the nine-judge panel ruled that the president has “absolute immunity” from criminal liability for any act within his “core constitutional powers.” Evidence of such official acts cannot be introduced at trial, the majority opinion said.
But the ruling, attacked by the court’s three liberal justices, said the president could still be prosecuted for acting outside that authority, although the precise distinction remains unclear.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned in a dissenting opinion that the decision could lead to a “nightmare scenario” involving immunity for assassinating a political rival.
“Whenever the President exercises formal power, he is now a king above the law,” she wrote.
Political significance
The Supreme Court’s ruling is good news for Trump, who faces three additional criminal cases.
The case is expected to be the biggest challenge yet to a key legal argument in federal litigation surrounding President Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election after his loss to President Joe Biden.
The case could also have implications for a Georgia trial involving allegations that Trump pressured officials to change the 2020 vote count, and a second federal trial involving allegations that Trump hid classified White House documents at his Florida property.
But the New York trial was the only one expected to end before the election. The early convictions did not make a big difference in Trump’s support, but analysts argued that the harsh sentences could turn off some Trump voters.
Merchant’s decision comes five days after Biden’s dismal performance in the first presidential debate with Trump, leaving the Democratic campaign scrambling to recover from the damage while raising concerns about the 81-year-old Trump’s advanced age.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found that one in three Democrats think Biden should end his reelection bid after his debate performance. But the poll also found that no prominent Democrat would do better than Biden in a hypothetical matchup with Trump.
On Wednesday, Biden is expected to meet with Democratic governors to try to assuage their concerns.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said Biden would give a post-debate interview to ABC News on Friday and hold a news conference at the NATO meeting next week.
She repeatedly stressed that Biden has no intention of backing out of the race.
